Posts Tagged ‘Human rights defender’
April 24, 2013
Rule of law, freedom of the press, women’s rights – these were just a few of the issues recently discussed at a conference which brought together human rights defenders from Central America and the Caribbean. Twenty human rights defenders from 13 countries and representatives from the German embassies attended the event, which took place from 17 to 18 April in Panama and was organized by the Federal Foreign Office. Also participating were the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, Markus Löning, and the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Thomas Karl Neisinger.
The discussions were dominated by the key issues affecting the region, such as the rule of law and women’s rights. Special attention was given to the subject of coöperation between embassies and human rights defenders as well as building networks and strengthening regional civil society. Despite the different situations in countries such as Honduras, Costa Rica and Jamaica, many states in the region face similar challenges. Consequently it is especially important to improve civil society networks so that human rights defenders can learn from one another’s experiences and coöperate more closely in the future.
This event was the fourth regional human rights seminar organized by the Federal Foreign Office. This format is to be retained for future events, for example in Southern Africa in June 2013.
Auswärtiges Amt – Latin America – Better networks for human rights.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Central America, civil society organisations, conference, Germany, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights policy, Latin America, Markus Löning, networking, Non-governmental organization, Panama, southern africa, training
April 23, 2013
Karl Ombion, writing for Bulatlat.com, reports that in a court hearing on 18 April 2013 at RTC Branch 55, in Himamaylan City, Adjutant General Alexis Gopico and Lt. Col Ricardo B Bayhon positively identified the two suspects in the brutal murder of Philippine human rights defender Benjamin Bayles as military enlisted men. Edre Olalia, legal counsel of the victim’s family, and Secretary General of National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), confirmed this report. Bayles was murdered 14 June 2010 by two suspects who claimed to be Roger Bajon and Ronnie Caurino when they were captured by Himamaylan police operatives hours after the incident. Olalia said “the confirmation, positive identification and specific personal pinpointing of the killers of activist Benjamen Bayles by top army officials as enlisted personnel under their command is a welcome development and a high point in making perpetrators of extra judicial killings accountable.” This is ultimately a product of public vigilance and pressure by human rights defenders aided also by conscientious legal work, Olalia stressed, but it remains to be seen if this leads to a deeper investigation, determination of other guilty parties, including possibly, superior officers. The accused who are lowly private first class personnel maybe sacrificial dispensable small fry to stop the investigation and let masterminds escape identification and prosecution.”“As in other cases, like that of Jonas Burgos, extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances and other rights violations, there is no closure until there is full justice for the victims,” Olalia concluded.
via Military admits Bayles killers as their own « Bulatlat.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Benjamin Bayles, Civil society, Enlisted rank, extra judicial killings, Extrajudicial killing, Filipino, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, justice, killing, lawyer, military, Olalia, Philippine, Philippines
April 22, 2013
On 17 April 2013, human rights defender Jean Pierre Muteba reported to the Katanga provincial office of the ANR (National Intelligence Agency), a day after receiving a written notice signed by the new director of that agency in Katanga, DRC. The notice followed incidents in which the human rights defender noted being followed by members of the same agency and complained to colleagues of receiving several threatening telephone messages from anonymous callers. However, on this occasion he was not questioned and left after two hours.
Jean Pierre Muteba is the spokesperson for the “Cadre de Concertation de la Société Civile du Katanga” (Coalition of Civil Society Groups of Katanga), a network of civil society organisations active on issues related to human rights and justice as well as social accountability for extractive industries in the DRC’s copper-rich Katanga region.
On several different occasions after 23 March 2013, the day on which a group of Maï Maï fighters known as “Bakata Katanga” invaded Lubumbashi (Katanga’s regional capital), Muteba reported receiving anonymous intimidatory messages on his mobile phone. Three days after this invasion, which caused up to thirty-five deaths according to UN sources, ten organisations affiliated with Muteba’s coalition issued a report on the incident in which they accused certain personalities within Katanga’s security, business and political spheres of being behind the violent incident. It is believed that the threats and intimidatory acts that Muteba has faced since are closely related to the role his organisation played in denouncing those who are suspected of being behind the attack on Lubumbashi and in demanding an independent investigation of the violence.
Front Line Defenders believes that the threats against Jean Pierre Muteba are directly related to his human rights work with the Coalition of Civil Society Groups of Katanga.
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Tags: Civil society, congo drc, death threats, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, Frontline Defenders, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Jean Pierre Muteba, Lubumbashi, lubumbashi katanga, National Intelligence Agency, sectarian violence, social accountability
April 22, 2013
NGOs as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemn the murder of Ever Cordero, chairman a participatory dialogue process for victims of displacement in the department Córdoba, Colombia.
Ever Cordero was a community leader who worked to bring about the restitution of lands for victims of the armed conflict. On April 9, 2013, Ever Cordero was traveling toward the urban area of Valencia, in Córdoba, when two individuals on a motorcycle intercepted him and shot him to death. Ever Cordero was going to Valencia to attend ceremonies and marches commemorating the National Day of Memory and Solidarity with Victims.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders issues a text in Spanish:
via Colombia: Assassination of Mr. Elver Cordero Oviedo, well-known human rights defender in Córdoba / April 16, 2013 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT.
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Tags: Colombia, Cordero, Evert Cordero, Human rights defender, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, killing, land rights, local communities, murder, Non-governmental organization, Solidarity, World Organisation Against Torture
April 19, 2013
Intervening at the 53rd ordinary session of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, on 18 April 2013, the FIDH and the OMCT, in the framework of their Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, expressed their grave concern about the situation of human rights defenders in Africa, which they stated had not observed an improvement. Violations of human rights targeting defenders have continued, notably in Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Judicial harassment based on false accusations, accompanied by arbitrary arrests and detentions, remains the most common harassment technique, especially in Algeria and Zimbabwe, but also in Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, The Gambia and Sudan. In several countries, including The Gambia and DRC, defenders have also been subjected to threats and smear campaigns. In late December 2012 / early January 2013, the presence in Goma in the Kivu region of non-State armed groups notably led to increased threats against local defenders, forcing many of them to hide or flee into exile. The targeted defenders are, inter alia, members of NGOs and lawyers in Chad, DRC, Zimbabwe, journalists in Djibouti, trade unionists fighting against impunity in Algeria, Djibouti, DRC, Zimbabwe or defending land rights and the right to a healthy environment in Cameroon; defenders of the right to work in Algeria and the right to health care in Sudan; advocates for the abolition of the death penalty in The Gambia, women’s rights in DRC, The Gambia, and free and fair elections in Zimbabwe; and activists campaigning against arbitrary detention in Egypt. Some excerpts follow but the reference to the full report is below:
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Algeria, Arab region, Arab spring, Burundi, congo drc, Djibouti, DRC, Ethiopia, FIDH, funding, Gambia, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, International Federation for Human Rights, judicial harassment, Non-governmental organization, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, regulation, Sudan, threats, World Organisation Against Torture, Zimbabwe
April 18, 2013
The annual lecture on human rights in Maastricht with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, has quickly become a major event on the human rights agenda. As I was not able to attend, i have the great honor to introduce as my first guest author the well-known Theo van Boven, professor emeritus at Maastricht University, former Director of Human Rights in the UN, former Special Rapporteur on several subjects and a Patron of the MEA. With many thanks and in the hope that this will encourage others to contribute:
Theo van Boven 2011 (c) THF
On Wednesday April 17th, the newly appointed Foreign Minister of The Netherlands, Frans Timmermans, came to a very well-attended meeting at Maastricht University where he made a passionate plea for human rights as one of the cornerstones of Dutch foreign policy. While the Foreign Minister was the main speaker, his appearance was framed in a broader setting with other lively presentations on such issues as the need for consistency between domestic and foreign human rights policy (“practise what you preach”), the role of women in the Syrian armed conflict and the Rights of Lesbian ,Gay, Trans, Bisexual and Intersex Persons (LGTBI rights).
Frans Timmermans expressed his strong personal commitment to human rights : “I passionately believe in human rights” and he recalled that no human right was achieved without struggle. He stressed that human rights, the rule of law, and democracy are strongly interconnected but that democratic majorities should respect the rights of minorities and individuals.
The Netherlands foreign minister praised the role of persons,groups and organizations who in situations of great risk are standing up for human rights. He pledged his support for human rights activists/defenders as a “top priority“. It is of crucial importance to help human rights activists in expressing themselves and for The Netherlands to coöperate with other countries, bilaterally and through international organizations, in the defence and the promotion of the values enshrined in human rights instruments.
Among the points that came up in the Q and A discussion were the need to give due and equal weight to the promotion and protection of economic,social and cultural rights together with civil and political rights; the inherent and imminent danger to human rights of the use of drones; the serious reduction in the Netherlands budget for development coöperation ( although not implying the reduction of funds in support of human rights activities); and the persistent evil of human trafficking as a contemporary form of slavery.
Theo van Boven
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Tags: Dutch Foreign Policy, Frans Timmermans, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human trafficking, lecture, LGTBI rights, Maastricht, Maastricht University, MEA, Netherlands, Special Rapporteur, Theo van Boven
April 17, 2013
Last week I reported on the Natalia bracelet and yesterday my eye fell on a lengthy piece posted on Amnesty International‘s Livewire by Technology and Human Rights Project Officer Tanya O’Carroll. It describes how emerging digital tools will help activists and human rights defenders. http://livewire.amnesty.org/2013/04/15/how-to-turn-a-mobile-phone-into-an-alert-system-for-activists/.
As a student activist speaking out against the government, Hassan is at constant threat of being arrested. The Sudanese government tracks and harasses members of the student movement he belongs to. Reports of his friends and contacts being detained, tortured and even killed by the authorities are frighteningly regular. But Hassan’s network is also well organized. His phone is always on him and he uses it to help organize demonstrations, to record and disseminate video of violent crackdowns against the students and to keep his network updated every minute – a network that stretches from Khartoum to the rest of the globe in the time it takes to send a tweet. If he is able to get word out that he’s been arrested, Hassan knows that his network’s response will be swift and structured. The problem is that he knows the first thing the authorities will seize is his mobile phone. And here’s the double danger of not getting word out: the authorities will use the phone book, call log, messages and any open apps – such as G-Mail or Facebook – to identify and track others. Without knowledge of the arrest, the whole network will be easily compromised. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: activists, AI, Amnesty International, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, information technology, Livewire, mobile phones, Natalia project, Panic Button, protection, Security-in-a-box, technology, ThoughtWorks, tool
April 17, 2013
According to the ‘24.kg news agency‘ [only] 394 brides have been kidnapped in Kyrgyzstan in 2012. Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun said this at a meeting of the parliament Committee for Human Rights. He said that the number used to be much larger: “But the Ombudsman’s Institute, human rights defenders, journalists, and us – we all are working on it. We can see positive changes. Rate of brides kidnapping for forced marriage has decreased. A man who kidnapped a bride has been sentenced to 6 years with our assistance”.
However in the related article mentioned below from June 2012 number estimates are much higher: ” Since it often goes unreported, the actual number of bride kidnappings is unknown although Kyrgyzstan Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun estimates that more than 8,000 young women are kidnapped each year.”
http://eng.24.kg/community/2013/04/16/26656.html
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Tags: Bishkek, bride kidnappings, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights of women, kidnapping, Kyrgyzstan, Ombudsman, Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun, research, traditional practices, wedding
April 16, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about charges brought against a community educator in Burma for teaching political science. Min Min, a human rights defender based in the country’s lowland, is being prosecuted because he refused to heed warnings that he not teaches a course on political science at his community-based education centre. He is currently on bail with the trial underway. The details of the story are below: Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: AHRC, Asian Human Rights Commission, Burma, Education, freedom of information, human rights, Human rights defender, Min, Min Min, Myanmar, Ne Win, Political science, political science course, Pyay, Pyi, right to education
April 15, 2013
Interfax-Ukraine on 15 April reports that Ukrainian human rights activists have called for a quick adoption of a law regulating the freedom of demonstration after the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Verentsov versus Ukraine. The Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) Arkadiy Buschenko said at a press conference today that human rights defenders had earlier called for the settlement of the legislation on freedom of peaceful assembly and now that the ECHRs judgment recommends that Ukraine liberalize the law in this area, the adoption of such a law becomes even more relevant. In the case of “Verentsov versus Ukraine” the court recognized the violation of Verentsov’s rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and obliged Ukraine to pay EUR 6,000 in compensation to Ukraine. The ECHR also proposed that Ukraine urgently reform the laws and administrative practices in order to determine the requirements for the organization and holding of peaceful assemblies, in particular, in the context of determining the grounds for restricting rallies. Human rights defenders have already prepared a draft law and submitted it for consideration by a number of MPs.
via Human rights activists call for speedy adoption of liberal law on freedom of assembly.
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Tags: Arkadiy Buschenko, European Court of Human Rights, freedom of assembly, freedom of demonstration, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Interfax-Ukraine, Law, Ukraine, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 